Ryan Mason believes a clear week of preparation on the training pitches ahead of this weekend’s Sky Bet Championship showdown with Portsmouth has been really beneficial.
The Baggies, who have claimed maximum points from their first two league games, host the side from the south coast at 3pm on Saturday afternoon in their third second-tier fixture of the 2025/26 campaign.
With no midweek encounter, Mason has had an opportunity to work for a prolonged period of time with his players on a number of aspects, something which the boss sees as incredibly important at this moment in the term.
Ryan said: “It’s been a good week of preparation for the game. We understand the importance of a full training week, especially at this stage of the season and the stage of our journey.
“We’ve had new players walk into the building recently and despite having a whole week, we’ve still only had a handful of training sessions and it’s going to take time for the newer players to really understand what we want.
“It’s a process, but we’re all comfortable with the process because we all believe in it.
“Plenty of work has gone into the week and we’re looking forward the game against Portsmouth on Saturday.
“I understand that every game in this league is difficult. Portsmouth had an excellent result on the opening day, going and beating Oxford at their place. They’re going to come here full of confidence.
“There’s no expectation in terms of results for me. There’s an expectation of a mindset, an approach and a certain type of performance.
“I’ve been in this game long enough to know you don’t expect to win a game, you have to earn the right to win.
“We have to approach tomorrow just like any other game, with full intensity and full focus to try and impose ourselves on the encounter in front of our own fans. Off the back of that, hopefully we can get a positive result.
“We've won our first two league games and we'd love to make it three out of three, but we're very aware of how difficult it will be and how well we'll need to play to do that.”
Midfielder Alex Mowatt agreed a new two-year contract earlier this week, a deal which keeps him at The Hawthorns until the summer of 2027.
Mason insists the news is “massive” for Albion, stating Mowatt is a man who adds plenty of “character, experience and fire” to the group.
The boss added: “Alex Mowatt agreeing a new deal is massive for us. We lost a few big characters over the summer with plenty of experience.
“We wanted to keep Alex because he’s a big character in the group, he has lots of experience and he’s an extremely good footballer. We hold him in high esteem. Everyone was very happy with the news.
“He's got a massive amount of experience in the game and at this level. The fire is still there for him, he works extremely hard and he’s an example for so many.
“He’s started every game so far and he’s very important. We have different options in the middle of the pitch and they have different strengths and attributes which we’re going to need throughout the season.
“He’s still got that fire and the desire to come in, work hard and keep improving. It’s important we have people like that in the building.”
